What Is the IRA Contribution Deadline?
Understand how the tax filing deadline impacts your ability to make IRA contributions and how rules differ for personal and employer-sponsored plans.
An Individual Retirement Arrangement, or IRA, is a savings tool that provides tax advantages for retirement savings. Individuals with earned income can set aside money each year, subject to certain limits. These accounts are a common way for people to supplement other retirement savings, like a 401(k) plan, or to save for retirement if they don’t have access to an employer-sponsored plan.
The Standard IRA Contribution Deadline
For a Traditional or Roth IRA, the deadline to contribute for a specific tax year is the same as the deadline for filing your federal income tax return, which is typically April 15 of the following year. For the 2024 tax year, your final day to contribute is April 15, 2025. If this date falls on a weekend or a holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day.
Between January 1 and the tax filing deadline, you can make a “prior-year contribution.” This allows you to contribute funds and have them count toward the previous year’s contribution limit, which can be useful if you need more time to save. For 2024, the maximum contribution is $7,000, or $8,000 if you are age 50 or older.
Filing for an extension on your taxes does not change this deadline. An extension gives you more time to file your tax return paperwork, but it does not grant you additional time to fund your Traditional or Roth IRA for the previous tax year. That deadline remains fixed.
How to Designate Your Contribution Year
When you contribute to your IRA between January 1 and the tax filing deadline, you must specify which year the funds are for. Your financial institution will require you to designate the contribution for either the current calendar year or the prior tax year. This ensures your contribution is recorded correctly for tax purposes.
This designation is handled through the contribution interface on your brokerage’s website or mobile app, often with a dropdown menu or checkbox to select the year. If you contribute with a physical check or form, there will be a specific box to indicate the year.
After the transaction, verify that the contribution was applied to the intended year by checking the confirmation details or your account statement. If you find an error, contact the financial institution immediately, as mistakes are easier to correct when detected early.
Deadlines for Employer-Sponsored Plans
The contribution rules for employer-sponsored plans like a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA or a Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRA differ from Traditional and Roth IRAs. For these plans, the contribution deadline is linked to the employer’s business tax filing deadline, not the individual’s, because the contributions are made by the employer.
The deadline for funding a SEP IRA or making the employer portion of a SIMPLE IRA contribution can be extended. If a business owner files for an extension for their business tax return, the deadline to make these retirement plan contributions is also pushed back to the extension date. This gives employers additional flexibility to determine the amount they can contribute.
SIMPLE IRAs have two deadlines. Employee salary deferrals must be deposited by the employer no later than 30 days after the end of the month in which the money was deferred. The employer’s matching or non-elective contributions follow the later deadline of the business’s tax return due date, including any extensions.